Awakenings

"The awakened imagination returns us to our native wildness"  John O'Donohue

"Awakening"  has different meanings to different people.   Because as humans we want everything to be neatly categorized, we may be turned off to the word when we narrowly define it.   Some think  awakening is a kind of new understanding of the Divine- when God is presented in a new perspective, through seeking him,  or through a mystical experience.  Others think of the Buddhist reference- an evolving of our sense of self in a transcendent awareness of our connection to all things. 

 For some, an awakening is a new comprehension of our most inner being -our soul- who we truly are and how that defines our relationships, spiritually and in the human plane.  This kind of awakening usually occurs after a trauma of some sort that makes us stand still in time and look deeply inward as protection of the deepest self. 

I think any and all of these "awakenings" can happen exclusively of each other or in tandem,  and are merely the means to an end; our journey becomes more inward and more circumspect, where it is possible to find our true purpose and path.  We begin to recognize and pay attention to our most authentic selves and our innermost needs.  Because until we do that,  we cannot recognize or accept those experiences essential to our soul that come our way and help us grow fully into the humans we were created to become. 
 
One of my favorite writers is John O'Donohue.  His writing is full of truth, and paradox-  the hard truths of the darkness and depths of the human soul,  but also its instinct to search for and be transformed by God's light, grace, and love.  O'Donohue never shies away from the hidden dark and dank corners of shame and humiliation we experience, and is never afraid to announce the power and beauty of God's love to usher in new life and meaning to what was previously dead. 
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 Wherever you are in your path, I hope this resonates with you , speaks to your heart, and gives you hope.

For everything under the sun there is a time.
This is the season of your awkward harvesting,
When the pain takes you where you would rather not go,

Through the white curtain of yesterdays to a place
You had forgotten you knew from the inside out;
And a time when that bitter tree was planted

That has grown always invisibly beside you
And whose branches your awakened hands
Now long to disentangle from your heart.

You are coming to see how your looking often darkened
When you should have felt safe enough to fall toward love,
How deep down your eyes were always owned by something

That faced them through a dark fester of thorns
Converting whoever came into a further figure of the wrong;
You could only see what touched you as already torn.

Now the act of seeing begins your work of mourning.
And your memory is ready to show you everything,
Having waited all these years for you to return and know.

Only you know where the casket of pain is interred.
You will have to scrape through all the layers of covering
And according to your readiness, everything will open.

May you be blessed with a wise and compassionate guide
Who can accompany you through the fear and grief
Until your heart has wept its way to your true self.

As your tears fall over that wounded place,
May they wash away your hurt and free your heart.
May your forgiveness still the hunger of the wound

So that for the first time you can walk away from that place,
Reunited with your banished heart, now healed and freed,
And feel the clear, free air bless your new face.”

- John O'Donohue 

" For someone awakening to the trauma of their past"

If you have never read or heard John O"Donohue, here is a link to an interview he did on NPR https://onbeing.org/…/john-odonohue-the-inner-landscape-of-… . Would give a lot to have been able to have a conversation with him.